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PNS Daily Newscast - May 24, 2019

President Trump's reported to be ready to sign disaster relief bill without money for border security. Also on the Friday rundown: House bills would give millions a path to citizenship; and remembering California’s second-deadliest disaster.

Serious Pipeline Battle Brewing in the Shenandoah Valley

MAP: A big legal fight is brewing in the Shenandoah Valley over the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, one of three big pipelines intended to bring West Virginia Marcellus natural gas to eastern markets. Map by Appalachian Mountain Advocates.

January 5, 2015

RICHMOND, Va. - Hundreds of Shenandoah Valley landowners are refusing to let Dominion survey for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The power company is suing about 50 property owners and says it will sue more.

Community organizers say the majority of landowners on the route in Augusta and Nelson Counties are refusing to give surveyors access to their land. Dominion has said it plans to take nearly 180 of them to court. Nancy Sorrells is co-chair of the Augusta County Alliance, a landowners group formed to oppose the pipeline.

"It's a huge groundswell of community support against the pipeline," says Sorrells. "I served eight years as an elected official and I've never, ever seen such a coming together of the community."

Dominion says it has the right to force access because it will be meeting a public need, a demand for West Virginia natural gas in North Carolina and points east. Opponents say the real demand is for corporate profits.

The pipeline would be a huge project at 550 miles long, carrying 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas a day. It's one of three big pipelines companies want to build through Virginia to take Marcellus natural gas to eastern markets. Sorrells says Dominion has been "used to getting their own way" in the region. But she says the "bullying" has alienated many near the border of West Virginia.

"It's not just a liberal issue, it's not just a conservative issue," she says. "Dominion drew a straight line, and they're sticking by their straight line, and that means little regard for the people in their path."

Construction of the pipeline would mean clearing at least a 125-foot-wide swath and digging a 10-foot-deep trench and leaving a permanent right of way. Several law firms are offering assistance for free and Sorrells says it looks to be a long legal battle.

"Dominion says it is for the public good and they need to get in there and survey those routes," she says. "People who are holding out against that say this is my private property and I don't want you on my property. So it's going to be decided in court."